The Spanish Frontier Ballad: Historical, Literary, and Musical Associations Charles Jacobs The Musical Quarterly, Vol.

58, No. 4. (Oct., 1972), pp. 605-621.

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THE SPANISH FRONTIER BALLAD:

HISTORICAL, LITERARY, AND
MUSICAL ASSOCIATIONS

By CHARLES JACOBS

HE Spanish frontier ballad, or romance fronterizo, is one of several types of ballads originating in Spain during the Middle Ages and the "Siglo de Oro." Epic in character, romances are not necessarily lengthy. Perhaps the most arresting quality of this poetic genre is its seeming objectivity in narration. T h e frontier ballad, a species of romance historico, treats of the Christian reconquest of parts of the Iberian peninsula held by Moslems. Other historical ballads concern Carolingian figures and events, as well as events from the medieval history of Castile, including court intrigues and famous battles, and happenings in other peninsular d0mains.l

1 Romance versification is characterized by a series, indeterminate in number, of couplets, each line of which generally comprises a pair of octosyllabic hemistichs. Formal organization into strophes consisting of quatrains or sextets is often present, as usually is assonant rhyme. Early romances-like the twelfth-century Poema de mio Cid - often lack regular formal characteristics. Many extant romances apparently reached final form in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. T h e literary bibliography of the romance is extensive. An excellent bibliographic list is given by Manuel Garcia Blanco, in his "El Romancero," in Historia General de las Iiteraturac hispanicas, I1 (1951), 40-51. T h e foremost scholar in the field is Ram6n Menkndez Pidal, among whose works the following are of particular importance: El Romancero espaiiol (1910), El Romancero: teorias e investigaciones (1928), Flor Nueva de Romances Viejos (1928), T h e Cid and His Spain (1934), and Romancero hispdnico (2 vols., 1953). T h e following are comprehensive anthologies of romances: Agustin Durhn, ed., Coleccidn de Romances Castellanos anteriores a1 Siglo XVZZZ (5 vols., 1828-32); Ferdinand Joseph Wolf and Konrad Hofman, eds., Romances Viejos Custellanos (3 vols., 2nd ed., 1888-1900, rev. Marcelino Mentndez y Pelayo; = Antologia de Poetus Liricos Castellanos, VIII-X; Menkndez y Pelayo, ed., Tratado de 10s Romances Viejos (2 vols., 1903-06; = Antologia de Poetas Liricos Castellanos, X I I ;
-

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T h e Spanish Frontier Ballad

607

Although the romance enjoyed an enormous vogue in sixteenthcentury Spain, music survives for only a small fraction of the extant texts - i. e., for some seventy romances. Over half these musical settings are found in the Cancionero de Palacio, dating from ca. 1490-1520.2 Music for twenty romances is provided by the vihuela tablatures published in sixteenth-century SpainS3Melodies for ten romances are given by Francisco Salinas in his De musica libri septem (Salamanca, 1577)."solated romances are also found in the Cancionero Musical de la Casa de Medinaceli5 and in Juan Bermudo's Declaracio?z de Znstrume~ztos Musicales (Osuna, 1555).6 Many romance settings are anonymous, although in addition to the vihuelists, such figures as Juan del Encina (1469-ca. 1529), Cristbbal de Morales (ca. 1500-1553), Juan Vrisquez (ca. 1530-?), as well as lesser-known musicians, are represented in the s o ~ r c e s .Frontier ~ ballads occur in nearly a dozen musical settings.

this-republ. in 1944, Enrique Sanchez Reyes, ed., as Edicidn Nacional de las Obras Contf~leias de Menr'ndez 2' Pelayo, XXIII - includes a thorough study of the genre); cf. also: Guy Le Strange, ed., Spanish Ballads (1920); Christopher C. Smith, ed., Spanish Ballads (1964); IVilliam J . Elltwistle, European Balladry (1939); Sylvanus G. hlorley, Spanish Ballads (1911); idem, "Chronological List of Early Spanish Ballads," Hispanic Review, XI11 (1945), 273.87. 2 Edited first by Francisco Asenjo Barbieri, Cant.-ionero tnusical de 10s siglos X V y XVI (1890). and mo1.e recently by Iliginio Anglrs ?t ul. in ~3fonunienios de la Musica ' (1947), X (19.51), and XIV (1965). Espaiioln (henceforth abbreviated AlAlE), 1 3Cf. Gustate Reese, Music i n the Rennissauce (re\. ed., 1959), pp. 619-25; John Ward, "The Vihucla de Mano and Its Music 1536-15i6" (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 19.53); Daniel Llevoto, "Poksie et Musique clans I'Oeuvre des Vihuelistes," Annales mt~sicologiqz~es, IV (1956), 85-111. 4 Facsim. reprint, 19.58. 5 Ed. Miguel Querol Gavalda, in M M E , VIII 11949) and IX (19.50). 6 Facsim. reprint, 1957. 7Valuable studies of the musical settings are: Eduardo hlartinez Torner, "Indicaciones practicas sobre la notaci6n de los romances," Reuista de Filologia EspaAola, X (1923), 389-94; idem, "Ensayo de clasificacibn de las melodias de 10s romances," Homenaje ofrecido a Menr'ndez Pidnl, I1 (1925), 391-402; Miguel Querol GaxaldB, "Importance Historique et Nationale d u Romance," Musique et PoPsie a u XVZe ,Sid.cle (= Colloques Internationnux d u Centre Nntionnl des Recherches Scientifiques, V [1953]); Isabel Pope, "Notas sobre la melodia del Conde Clnros," Nueva I 395-402. Cf. also: Gilbert Chase, T h e ~Zlusic Revista de Filologia Hispdnica, ~ I (1953), of Spain (2nd rev. ed., 1959), pp. 44-47; John Brande Trend, T h e dlusic of Spanish Histor? to 1600 (1920); Querol GavaldB, La ~Zllisicne n Ins Obrns de Ceruantes (1948); Robert Stevenson, Spanish Music i n the Age of Colurnbus (1960). Valuable bibliographical material is contained in Higinio .4nglhs, "Das spanischc Volkslied," Archiu fur Musikforschung, I11 (1938), 331-62.

608

The Musical Quarterly

Among the romance melodies especially favored by Spanish sixteenth-century musicians is one that became associated with the frontier ballad Pasedbase el rey moro. No established version of this melody exists, but its basic contour may be derived easily from comparative settings of the romance by the vihuelists Luis de NarvAez, Diego Pisador, and Miguel de Fuenllana, as well as a keyboard setting by Francisco FernAndez Palero. T h e settings by NarvAez and Pisador of Pasedbase el rey moro are found in their respective vihuela tablatures, the Delphin de Musica (Valladolid, 1538) and Libro de Mzisica de Vihuela (Salamanca, 1552).8 In the Delphin red ciphers printed as part of the vihuela score represent the vocal line, common practice in vihuela tablatures: in Pisador's Libro, the vocal part is given separately on a staff above the vihuela score. In transcription the vocal line of the Narvdez setting should be integrated into the music of the vihuela. In a transcription of music for voice and vihuela the polyphony of the vihuela part would be often incomplete if the vocal notes were presumed to be sung exclusively. The Pisador setting, with its separation of the vocal line, seems to provide further supporting evidence for vihuela performance of a vocal line notated in tablature. Tempo is not mentioned in the Pisador tablature. NarvAez, however, calls for tempo allegro moderato in the performance of his setting, by which, as he explains in the prefatory remarks to his using 0, Delphin, is assigned this meaning in his colle~tion.~ Pisador's setting, beginning with a short vihuela introduction and incorporating a brief instrumental interlude before the final hemistich and refrain, is to that extent slightly more ambitious formally than NarvAez's, the vihuela part of which, however, contains more elaborate figuration. Both pieces tend toward regular (parallel) groupings of measures - in Narviez, four at a time.
8 MME, 111 (1945), ed. Emilio Pujol, forms a complete ed. of Narviez's Delphin. For Pisador's setting of this romance, see Ex. 1, below. A reconstruction of this piece in facsimile is given in Guillermo Morphy, ed., Les Luthistes espagnols du X V I e sitcle, 1 (1902), xl. Morphy also provides an occasionally inaccurate transcription of this romance ( o p . cit., 11, 179). Valuable bibliographical information on the instrumental sources mentioned in this paper is provided in Howard Mayer Brown, Instrumental Music Printed before I600 (1965), under 15381, 15527, 15572, and 15543. Q C f . the present writer's T e m p o Notation in Renaissance Spain (1964), pp.

18-22.

T h e Spanish Frontier Ballad

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610

T h e hfusical Quarterly

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The Spanish Frontier Ballad

61 1

Essentially the same portion of the romance text is set by Narvhez and Pisador; a translated conflation of their texts follows:
T h e Moorish king was going about the city of Granada, when news came to him that Alhama was taken. Alas! my Alhama.

In the setting a 3 of Pasedbase by Fernindez Palero, from Luis Venegas de Henestrosa's Libro de Cifra Nueva (Alcalh de Henares, 1557), the romance melody is treated as a cantus firmus in the middle voice; around it the other voices of the setting spin free decorative keyboard figuration.1

T h e Moorish political dominion and cultural influence in Spain that terminated in 1492, a decade after the events alluded to in Paseubase el rey moro, followed many centuries of Moslem occupation in almost the entire Iberian peninsula.ll The course of this occupation is well-known, as is the easy interaction between Moslem and Christian, indeed among Moslem, Christian, and Jew in medieval Iberia. T h e Omayyad Caliphate at Cordoba, after a period of intellectual and political brilliance, suffered corruption and disintegration into petty kingdoms known as taifas. From 1248, the sole taifa that survived the gradual Christian reconquest was Granada. Political alliances between Moslem and Christian had been common throughout the Spanish Middle Ages. The entry of Charlemagne into Spain in 778 was not in the nature of a crusade against the Moor, since he had been invited to invade by the Abbasid Moslem governor of Barcelona in an attempt to dethrone the Omayyal Abd al-Rahman I of Cordoba. Charlemagne advanced nearly to Saragossa before being repulsed; he fell back to France, en route
loA complete ed. of the Libro de Cifra Nueva, ed. Angles, is contained in MME, I1 (1944). 11 The historical information following above is derived from: Pedro Aguado Bleye, Manual de Historia de Espafia, 3 vols. (8th ed., rev. Cayetano Alcizar Molina, 1958); Rafael Altamira y Crevea, Historia de Espafia, 5 vols. (3rd ed., 1913); William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic, 3 vols. (rev. ed., 1858); Ulrich Ralph Burke, A History of Spain, 2 vols. (2nd ed., rev. Martin A. S. Hume, 1900); Amkrico Castro, T h e Structure of Spanish History, trans. Edmund L. King (1954); Reinhart Dozy, Spanish Islam (1913); S. M . Imamuddin, Some Aspects
of the Socio-Economic and Cultural History of Muslim Spain Political History of Muslim Spain (1961).
(1965);

idem, A

612

T h e Musical Quarterly

conquering and sacking the Christian (Basque) city of Pamplona. In one of the passes of the Pyrenees, at Roncesvalles (Roncevaux) in Navarre, a Basque force ambushed and slaughtered the Frankish rear guard, commanded by Charlemagne's nephew Roland.12 Sospirastes, Baldovinos, a romance in Luis de Milbn's El Maestro (Valencia, 1535),13 treats of Baudouin, or Balduinus (= Baldwin, Roland's step-brother), and well demonstrates in its text the relaxed social climate of medieval Spain.
"You sighed, Baldovinos, [about] the things that I most wanted, or you fear the Moors, or you have a lady-friend i n France." "I do not fear the Moors, nor d o I have a lady-friend in France; but, you a Moslem and I Christian, we are leading an unsatisfactory life. "If you come with me to France, all will be happiness for us; I shall enter jousts and tournaments to serve you every day. "And you will see the flower of [the] best chivalry of the world; I will be your knight [and] you will be my lovely lady-friend."l4

These verses, however, are not the complete text of the romance, which may have its origin in the French epic Chanson des Saisnes (i. e., Saxons), ca. 1200, by Jean Bodel, quoted in the Nueve Romances . . . compuestos por Juan de Ribera (1605), as follows, with Baldwin at Carmona, a town about twenty miles northeast of Seville:
By the aqueduct of Carmona, whence the water flows to Seville, there walked
Valdovinos and with him his lovely lady-friend.
They waded in the water, [he] with his hand in his breastplate, fearing that the
Moors would observe them.
They came together, mouth to mouth, [and] nobody tried to stop them.
Valdovinos, with anguish, had sighed; "Why d o you sigh, my lord, my heart and
life? Either you are afraid of the Moors, or you have a lady-friend in France."
"I am not afraid of the Moors, nor d o I have a lady-friend in France; but thou,
a Moor, and I, a Christian, are leading a very unsatisfactory life: we eat meat o n
Fridays, which my law forbids. I t has been seven years - seven - since I have
heard Mass; if the Emperor knew it, it would cost me my life."
"For your love, Valdovinos, I would become a Christian."
"I, Madam for yours, [would become] a Moor in the moreria."l5

12 Catalonia was liberated from the Moors, nevertheless, by Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious between 785 and 801. 13 See the present writer's edition of El Maestro (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1971). Militn's generally homophonic or mildly polyphonic setting of the romance intersperses lengthy runs on the vihuela between hemistichs of the text. He provides two couplets, which are set musically as follows: Couplet I, aa; Couplet 11, bb; a codetta follows the setting of each couplet. 14The thirteenth-century Charlemagne window at Chartres, representing scenes from the Chanson de Roland, includes one of Roland with Baldwin (alleged). 15 Moreria = Moslem quarter or ghetto.

T h e Spanish Frontier Ballad

613

In the version of this ballad given in the undated romancer0 of Antwerp (ca. 1548), the last line is omitted: Baldwin's Moorish lady still offers to convert, but Baldwin does not.

Between 1248 and 1492 the kingdom of Granada was an anachronism, existing thanks only to the slow political growth and unification of the peninsula's Christian states. Gradually, the latter dismembered Granada. In 1344 the Moors lost Algeciras and neighboring Gibraltar. T h e year 1410 witnessed the fall, after a fivemonths' siege, of the important crossroads town Antequera, thirty miles north of Mdlaga and sixty west of Granada. T h e fall of Antequera forms the subject of romances set in a decidedly chordal style by Morales (and intabulated in Fuenllana's Orphtnica Lyra [Seville, 15541) and by Pisador. T h e text of Morales's De Anteqzlera sale el moro reads as follows:
T h e Moor is leaving Antequera, Antequera he left; he was carrying letters in his hands, messages.

T h e complete romance reads:

T h e Moor left Antequera three hours before dawn, with letters, in which help
was requested, in his hand; they were written in blood, but not because of a
lack of ink.
T h e Moor who carried them was 120 years old; his beard was white, his pate
shone; he carried everything, which he valued highly, in his turban.
T h e Moorish lady who made it [for him] was his mistress, veiled with tassels
of fine silk; he mounted a mare, [since] he did not want a steed.
Only a little page kept him company, not for lack of squires, of whom there were
enough in his household.
Seven knights, of proved chivalry, accompanied him; morever, the mare was
nimble, she stood out among many.
Over the fields of Archidona, he cried out, "Oh, good king, if you knew my sad
message, you would tear out your hair and your downy beardl"
T h e king, seeing him come, went out to receive him with three hundred cavaliers,
the flower of the Moorish quarter.
"Welcome, Moor, you are very welcome."
"Allah keep you, king, and all your company."
"Tell me, what news do you bring me from Antequera, Antequera, my town?"
"I shall tell you, good king, if you guarantee my life."
"Your life is secure, if you are guilty of no treason."
"Allah never would permit [me] to perform such a great evil! But may your royal
majesty know what he should already know, that that town of Antequera finds

6 14

T h e Musical Quarterly

itself in a crushing grip, that the Infante Don Ferdinand16 has it surrounded; [that he] is besieging it forcefully without cease, night and day. [As] food, your Moors eat cow hides, cooked. Good king, if you d o not help, very quickly it [Antequera] will be lost." T h e king, when he heard this, swooned from grief; expressing great sorrow, he shed many tears; he tore his garments, from his great pain; no one consoled him, because he would not permit it. But afterward, coming to himself, he cried out, "Sound my instruments,li trumpets of fine silver, [so that] as many knights as there are in my kingdom gather, [so that] they go with my two brothers to Archidona, Archidona my town, in aid of Antequera, key to my dominion." And thus, with this command, the great Moorish quarter assembled: eighty thousand foot soldiers made u p the aid that came, with five thousand o n horseback, the best he [the king] had. So i n the She-Ass's Mouth [Pass],ls this regal assemblage saw him, the infante, who was already prepared, confident in the great victory that God would give him, [to] his well-ordained people, over them [the hfoslems]. T h a t day, when the battle occurred, was [the holiday] of St. John, so beloved among us,19 [on] which for one hundred and twenty [Christian] dead, there were fifteen thousand Xloslems [slain]. After that battle, the town was attacked with Lombard [guns] and other arms, and with a great war-engine [bastida], with which the towers, from which it was defended, were won. Afterward, the Moors gave over the castle [i. e., fortress], upon condition that the Infante would place them, free [and] with their estates, in the town of Archidona; which was all done. And thus was Antequera won, in praise of Holy Mary.20

Morales may have written De Antequera as a personal tribute to the fifth count of Urueiia, his benefactor, whose father had played a distinguished role in the wars against Granada, particularly in connection with the reconquest of MAlaga.21
161. e., the Regent D. Fernando of Castile, later King Ferdinand I, "The Honest," of Aragon (reigned 1412-1416). 17Aiiafiles, usually translated "Moorish pipes"; they are also mentioned in Pasedbase el rey moro. 18 According to Le Strange, p. 199, between Granada and Archidona. Archidona is about a dozen miles east of Antequera. 19 Substitution of "querida" (beloved) for "herida" (wounded) in the original text. 20 This translation follows the text given in Smith, p. 118. The second part of the ballad (from "[that] they go with my two brothers"), according to Menkndez Pidal, is somewhat later than the initial, part. Cf. Smith, p. 121. 21 Cf. Robert Stevenson, "Crist6bal de Morales (ca. 1500-53): A Fourth Centenary Biography," Journal of the American Musicological society, VI (1953), 3, where the music of the romance is given. The music is also printed in Arnold %hering, Ceschichte der Musik in Beispielen (lgill), No. 114.

T h e Spanish Frontier Ballad

615

I n Pisador's L a Mafiana de Sant J u a n too, the messenger delivers news of the fall of Antequera to the king, Abu 'Abd Allah Yusuf I11 (reigned 1408-1423). T h e assignation of the event to St. John's Day may be wholly imaginary, as indeed may be the circumstances recounted in both these romances, since St. John's Day was a Christianization of the day celebrated by Moslems as the festivity of Midsummer.22 T h e army defending Antequera was defeated on May 16, and the city surrendered finally to the victorious Christians on September 28.23 Pisador's text sets the scene:
T h e morning of St. John's Day, as day was dawning, there were elaborate fes-
tivities among the Moors, o n the plain [vega] of Granada.
[They wore] rich cloaks dressed in silk and worked in gold.

T h e complete version of the romance reads:

T h e morning of St. John's Day, as day was dawning, there were elaborate fes-
tivities among the hIoors, on the plain [vega] of Granada.
Turning their horses this way and that, and jousting with lances, on which [were]
rich banners embroidered by their lady-friends, [they were] wearing rich gowns,
worked in gold and scarlet.
T h e Moor who had loves gave sign of it, while he who had n o loves did not
skirmish there.
T h e Moorish ladies watched them from the towers of the Alhambra; the king
also watched them from within the Alcazaba.24
Crying out, a Moor, with bloody face, came: "With your permission, king, I shall
tell you bad news; the Infante Don Ferdinand has won Antequera.
"Many Moors are dead; I am [among those] who fare better; I carry seven lance
wounds, all [of which] went through my body. Those who escaped with me
remained in Archidona."
With such news, the king paled; he ordered his trumpeters to assemble to sound
the alarm.
H e ordered that his own [people] assemble, to form a great cavalcade, and a t
the portals of AlcalL, called [..llcalL] the Rega1,zj the Christians and the Moors
entered into battle.
T h e Christians were numerous, but in disarray. T h e Moors, accustomed to war,

22 At present, St. John's Day falls on June 24.

23Cf. Smith, p. 123. Menendez Pidal, in his Catalogo del romancer0 judio-espafiol
(1948), p. 142, quotes the text of a Sephardic version of this ballad in oral tradition in Tangier, with the opening line "Mafianita era, mafiana." For Pisador's setting, see Morphy, 11, 178. 24 A fortress, the oldest structure on Alhambra Hill. 25Alcali la Real, twenty-five miles northwest of Granada, had been recaptured, in 1340, by Alfonso XI of Le6n and Castile (reigned 1312-50); cf. Le Strange, p. 133.

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T h e Musical Quarterly

gave them a bruising attack: slaying them, taking them [prisoner], ambushing
them.
W i t h victory the Moors returned to Granada, shouting, " T h e victory is already
regained!"

T h e attack on Alcalh la Real and the ambush of its garrison actually took place in 1424, fourteen years after the fall of Antequera.*@ A simple, homophonic romance setting by Lope MartinesZ7in the Cancionero de Palacio, Cavalleros de Alcalci (phrases of whose text are similar to several in the romance Caballeros de M o ~ l i n )may ,~~ refer to the same ambush:
Knights of Alcali, you came to take prisoner[s], a n d you failed, [thanks to] a little Moor,29 between Estepona a n d Marbella.30

Whether this romance indeed refers to the ambush, there is no doubt about the taunting quality of its text, which the many dissonant "escaped notes" of the musical setting perhaps express.31

I n 1464 Granada's King Mohammed Ismail I11 (reigned 14541466) was permitted to hold his kingdom only at the will of Castile and an annual tribute of gold. His son and successor, Muley Abu-el Hassan (or Abu'l Hasan Ali), refused, in 1481, to pay the tribute to Ferdinand the Catholic in gold and sent steel instead. Upon the accession of Ferdinand and Isabella, married in 1469, to their re. spective thrones in Aragon (1479) and Castile (1474), the reconquest - what was left of it - became a bitter crusade for total exclusion of the Moor. In 1482 Alhama was to fall to the Christian
Cf. Le Strange, loc. cit. Stevenson, Spanish Music, p. 293. 28Different readings of this appear in Le Strange, p. 133, and Smith, p. 124. Cf. also Menkndez y Pelayo, Antologia, IX, 202, note. 29 Little Moorish band? T h e ambush was carried out - according to the romance Caballeros d e Moclin - by a small group of Moors from Moclin and Colomera, two towns near Alcalii still under Moslem rule. 30 I t is difficult to see the relevance of Estepona and Marbella, both small fishing villages lying west of Milaga on the Mediterranean coast, to Alcali la Real and the ambush. Perhaps the Cancionero romance, despite correspondences to Caballeros de Moclin, refers only to a single foray by Christian knights of Alcali to the southern coast. T h e music of the Cancionero setting is printed in MME, V, 125; cf. also MME, XIV, 295. 31 Here, as in the other frontier ballads of the Cancionero de Palacio, a single couplet has been set to music.
26

27 Cf.

The Spanish Frontier Ballad forces. Thenceforth Ferdinand, with the assistance of professional gastadores (foragers), began a systematic devastation of the lush plain of Granada, for centuries famed for its farms and orchards. Politically, too, Granada was coming apart. Muley Abu-el Hassan's son, Boabdil, attempted to take the throne and threw the kingdom into civil war. T h e fall of the ravine-side city of Ronda to Ferdinand the Catholic in 1485 is celebrated in another simple, homophonic romance setting, Pascua dYEspiritu Santo, by Francisco de la Torre (fl. ca. 1483) 32 in the Cancionero de Palacio:
On the feast of the Holy Ghost, Sunday,33 [the] first day, at five in the afternoon,
he mounted [his horse], as he was in the habit of doing.
At five in the afternoon, that good King Don Ferdinand mounted [his horse],
as he was in the habit of doing, with his great cavalry.
He went to look at Ronda, [at] how it was fighting alone.
After a little while, a messenger came, [saying] that the Moors of Ronda were
surrendering with conditions.34
There, replied the king. . . .3"

Por 10s campos de 10s moros, another unpretentious romance setting by Torre in the Cancionero de Palacio, forms a minor paean to Ferdinand:
Through the lands of the Moors, King Don Ferdinand rode, leading his battles; Oh, how fine he looked136

MAlaga was surrendered to the Christians, without conditions, in 1487, and its entire population was sent or sold into slavery. Two years later the northeasterly city of Baza, near JaCn, fell. Some circumstances of its siege may have inspired an anonymous romance estaba el Rey, in the Cancionero de Palacio, the setting, Sobre B a ~ a text of which reads:
Cf. Stevenson, Spanish Music, p. 194. e., Whitsunday (Pentecost). 34 Such as those mentioned in De Antequera sale el moro. 35 Text incomplete. For the music, see M M E , V, 163. Cf. also M M E , XIV, 312, and MenPndez y Pelayo, Antologia, IX, 201. There are striking resemblances between Federico Garcia Lorca's Llanto por Zgnacio Sanchez Mejiar and this romance. The use of dissonance in the musical setting is noteworthy. Cf. the simultaneous cross relation - E-flat against E-natural - in meas. 3; also, the clash of a major seventh between an "escaped note" (bass) and a passing note (soprano) in meas. 26. 36The music is printed in M M E , V, 175. Cf. M M E , XIV, 320; MenPndez y Pelayo, Antologia, IX, 201, note.
32 33 I.

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The Musical Quarterly

Monday, after dining, the king arrived outside Baza; he looked at the rich stores that were in its precincts. He looked at the great orchards and he looked at the environs; he looked a t the strong wall that the city had; he looked at the massive towers, so numerous they cannot be counted. A Moor, behind the merlon of a battlement, began to speak: "Go away, King Don Ferdinand, you don't want to spend the winter here; you wonlt,be able to stand the cold of this place. "We have bread [enough] for ten years, [and] a thousand cows for salting; there are twenty thousand Moors here, all armed, eight hundred on horseback for skirmishing. We have seven commanders as good as Roland, and they have sworn to die rather than surrender."

This ballad may have been composed by a member of the court of Isabella and Ferdinand; it apparently was sung when the queen arrived at the Christian encampment near Baza on November 5 , 1489. Despite the ballad text, the siege of Baza was not lengthy.37 On November 25, 1491, Granada itself capitulated and on January 2, 1492, the Catholic Monarchs entered the city as sovere i g n ~T .~ o~ commemorate the event, a T e Deum was sung at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, by order of Henry VII. Two romance settings by Juan del Encina in the Cancionero de Palacio also commemorate the passing of the Iberian Moslem civilization, but in tragic accents. The text of U n a safiosa porfia:
A cruel, luckless misfortune is happening; I never had joy, but now my ills
are multiplying.
Fortune was disposed to take away my prosperous domain, for the brave lion
of Spain came menacing me.
His dreadful artillery, demolishing my walls; he is taking my towns and my
castles [and] my cities.
T h e land and sea moan, as he, dominating, comes, raising his banners and
standards and flags.
His very great cavalry, alas, glitters, its army and laborers disturbing the air.
T h e Moorish quarter is vanishing; he is laying waste to my fields, he is defeating
and slaying my companies and commanders.
Mohammed's mosques are reconsecrated as churches; Moorish ladies, tearfully
crying out, are taken captive.
T h e name is shouted to the heavens: "Long live King Ferdinand; long live the
very great lioness, [Queen Isabella], [may Her Most] High Majesty prosper."

37The music is printed in M M E , V, 162. Cf. M M E , XIV, 312; Smith, P. 138. 3gAfter the capitulation of Granada, Boabdil, its last king, retired to Andarax, in Andalusia, and eventually went into banishment in Fez. He died in 1538, taking part in a battle under the sultan of Morocco.

T h e Spar~isl~ Frontier Ballad

.4 generous Virgin has given them courage. A famous cavalier39 dressed i n a
rich cloak comes flying before [them], with a red cross a n d a glittering sword, leading all the people.40

T h e much briefer iQu'es de ti, desconsolado? is pungent in its concision:

W h a t about thee, unhappy one? W h a t about thee, king of Granada? W h a t about thy lands a n d thy hloors? Where is thy home?41

T h e romance Paseabase el rey moro forms an epitaph to seven centuries of Moslem presence in Iberia. It was evidently so popular in Granada in the years that followed the reconquest of the city and so moving to those who heard it that D. ffiigo Lopez de Mendoza, second count of Tendilla,42who had negotiated the surrender of the city and was afterwards its governor, forbade its singing, for fear of riots. T h e first complete printing of this romance occurred in Gin& PPrez de Hita's Guerras Ciuiles de Granada (1595),43 where PPrez de Hita claims it is a translation of an Arabic original. T h e most beautiful musical setting of Paseubase is without doubt Fuenllana's, for voice and four-string guitar, rather than six-course ~ihuela. Fuenllana ~~ utilizes essentially the same fragment of the romance text set by Narviiez and Pisador. Narviiez alludes to this fragmentation when he states, in his Delphin de Mzisica, folio 66'
39 Santiago "Matamoros" (St. James, "the Moor-slayer"), patron saint of Spain. 4oThe again entirely homophonic music - the only romance fronterizo setting a 4 in the Cancionero - is printed in IMME, V, 151; cf. also M M E , XIV, 307. 41 T h e music is printed in M M E , V, 102; cf. also M M E , XIV, 282. Encina's villancico Leuanta, Pascual, on the other hand, chronicles the excitement of a fifteenthcentury Christian, apparently a shepherd or shepherd's wife, making ready to visit justliberated Granada: "Get up, Pascual, get up; let us find our way to Granada, said to be taken. Get u p quickly, immediately; take your dog and your game bag, your sheepskin vest and jacket, your shepherds' pipes and staff. Let us go see the kindly received [Ferdinand?] of that celebrated city, said to be taken."; the music is printed in M M E , V, 213; cf. also M M E , XIV, 337. I am indebted to Dr. Isabel Pope for reminding me of the relevance of this villancico to the topic herein discussed. 42 A brother of the famous Cardinal Mendoza. 43 Also known under the title Historia d e 10s Vandos d e 10s Zegries. There were numerous editions of this book, from 1595 through suceeding centuries. T h e definitive edition seems to be that of Paula Blanchard-Demonge (Madrid, 1913). There is an English edition by Thomas Rodd [Sr.] (London, 1801). 44 Printed in Archibald T. Davison and Willi Apel, eds., Historical Anthology of Music, I (rev. ed., 1949), No. 123. Note cross relation in mm. 48-49, emphasizing "Alhama."

T h e Musical Quarterly

(= 70r), "since the text of this romance is very well known, I am only providing here the first four hemistichs [pies] of the romance. because this . . . romance is to be sung in groupings of four hemistichs [de quatro e n qzcatro pies]." Actually, disregarding the refrain, the second line of text has been omitted in all the vihuelists' settings.45Perhaps this implies that each phrase of music was to be repeated with the appropriate text. With minor adjustments, this seems musically feasible for Narviez's setting; in Fuenllana's, however, free repetitions of phrases of text are found, divorced structurally from their original literary function. In any event, a complete performance of the text of Paseabase, disregarding internal repetitions of phrases of the music for omitted hemistichs, would involve eleven repetitions of the entire musical setting, since there are eleven couplets in the ballad. (De Antequera sale el moro, on the other hand, consists of two dozen couplets, some of irregular length, and therefore would call for twice as many repetitions of the music for a "complete" performance.) Perhaps Narviez's comment only represents a suggestion that parts of the ballad text other than that given by him may be sung to the music provided in his tablature. T h e complete text of Paseabase el rey moro:
T h e Moorish king was going about the city of Granada, from the portal of
Elvira to that of Vivarambla. Alas! my Alhama.
Letters came to him that Alhama was taken; the letters he threw into the fire
and the messenger he killed. Alas! my Alhama.
H e dismounted his mule and mounted his horse; through the Zacatin he rode,
u p to the Alhambra. Alas! my Alhama.
When he arrived at the Alhambra, he ordered that his trumpets be sounded, his
silver instruments. Alas! my Alhama.
And that his arsenals quickly sound the alarm, so that his Moors, [whether] in
Granada or on the plain, should hear it. Alas! my Alhama.

45 Regarding the refrain, atypical of the romance type, cf. Le Strange, p. 201. T h e bipartite (ab) melody given by Salinas (De musica, p. 312) for the romance Ea Jzidios seems to imply that further couplets of the romance would be sung to the same music, in the chantlike fashion of the medieval Eai, if, in fact, Salinas has provided the entire melody in his treatise. Musically, many romance settings by the vihuelists and others may be interpreted as bipartite. Such irregularities in textual treatment, however, as those by the vihuelists noted above, discourage establishment in every case of a direct formal relationship between a possibly established medieval performance tradition and a freer treatment of the romance type by fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Spanish composers. (The text of Ea Judzo5, referring to the expulsion in 1492 of the Jews from newly unified Spain, reads: "He), Jews, pack up! T h e Monarchs [Ferdinand and Isabella] order you to cross the sea.")

The Spanish Frontier Ballad

621

T h e Moors who heard the sound, which called [out] to gory Mars, assembled
singly and by pairs [for a] great battle. Alas! my Alhama.
T h e n spoke a n old Moor, in this way did he speak: "For what do you call us,
king, for what is this call?" Alas! my Alhama.
"You must know, friends, a new misfortune: that the brave Christians have taken
from us Alhama." Alas! my Alhama.
T h e n spoke a wise man with a long grey beard: "Well do you employ yourself,
good king; good king, well do you employ yourself. Alas! my Alhama.
"You killed the Bencerrajes, who were the flower of Granada; you favored the
turncoats of renowed C6rdoba.46 Alas! my Alhama.
"For that, you merit, king, a severe punishment: that you should lose your
kingdom and life; and thus is Granada lost." Alas! my Alhama.47

46 Muley Abu-el Hassan had had members of the Abencerrage family murdered and banished, favoring instead the Zegrfes, Christian converts to Islam from C6rdoba. Cf. Le Strange, p. 202, who gives exact information on the sites mentioned in the ballad. 47Prosper Mkrimee and Lord Byron are among those who translated this ballad. Byron's translation is printed in Entwistle, p. 164. The king in the ballad is, of course, Muley Abu-el Hassan, on the point of being assailed for the throne by his son, Boabdil. I am indebted to Professor Israel J. Katz for bringing to my attention a monophonic romance setting on the fall of "Alamba" from Moroccan Sephardic oral tradition, printed in Arcadio de Larrea Palacin, Cancionero Judio del Norte de Mawuecos, I : Romances de Tetudn (1952), 55-56.

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You have printed the following article: The Spanish Frontier Ballad: Historical, Literary, and Musical Associations Charles Jacobs The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 4. (Oct., 1972), pp. 605-621.
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[Footnotes]
1

Chronological List of Early Spanish Ballads S. Griswold Morley Hispanic Review, Vol. 13, No. 4. (Oct., 1945), pp. 273-287.
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21

Cristbal de Morales (ca. 1500-53): A Fourth-Centenary Biography Robert Stevenson Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 6, No. 1. (Spring, 1953), pp. 3-42.
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